statistical error...

The image at left is a report card from the 1937 school year, and you can see that the teacher offered assessment on a variety of important aspects of growth. Click the image to see it in a larger size.

I just want to remind readers that long before standardized testing became such a strong focus among educational policy makers, teachers and schools were taking care of business, and taking care of the job of making sure that their children did not fall behind.

They did this by observing student participation in class. They had serious concerns for the growth of each child, even though, as today, they were often overloaded with too many children in each class.

I don't need to romanticize that era in American education. It can do so on its own. Things have changed in American education and many parents have found that things ain't too pretty. All children love learning. Many students learn to hate being schooled. Reading is one of the very best ways to learn in a broad area of subjects, but the first thing that many students learn in school is to hate reading, and that's where the whole of American education begins to break down. When students learn to despise reading the American educational solution is to force them to do more of it, when what they may need instead is a more relaxed approach that allows them to establish personal relevance. Give the something to do. Not something more just to read.

Policy makers are focused on making certain that they get the most bang for their bucks by using standardized testing to monitor and control teacher performance. Some would just as soon see public education on the rocks and have the education of children taken out of the hands of professional teachers, and placed in the realm of corporate profits. In either case, standardized testing is the tool of choice.

What you will find on the report card from 1937 are many of the things missing from the standardized testing scheme...  traits of citizenship: obedience, courtesy, industry, cooperation and independence. You will also notice a range of subjects that have been pushed aside from most schools due to the amount of time spent preparing for standardized tests. You'll find geography, civics, drawing, history, and music as a part of the teacher's concerns.

I spent the day Saturday at the Thea Show in Little Rock, and Thea is working to prove the value of the arts in schools. Unfortunately, these days the only approved measure of education has become the standardized test and Thea must prove itself and the value of the arts by raising test scores. Policy makers want uniformity of learning across the board, as though every child and every community could become cookie cut in conformity. Instead, we should be remembering the time in which teachers were trained and trusted to understand and care for the growth of children. We should remember the time in which a level of joy could be found in schooling. At that time students in school took wood shop and participated in the arts.

Make, fix and create...